Conde Nast Traveler Volume IV, 2018

We started working on this year’s Hot List before last year’s even went to press. The process goes like this: First we scan the entire globe for new hotel openings that look interesting to us. Then we dispatch our network of contributors to find out if the places actually deliver. “Hotels need to be experienced,” says Senior Editor Erin Florio (standing, above, with Visuals Director Linda Denahan), who helmed the project along with West Coast Editor Rebecca Misner. The next several months are spent debating the relative merits of each property, and teasing out themes and trends until it all comes together in one thoroughly exhaustive look at the greatest hotel openings of the year. For this year’s Hot List, see page 21. 426 The number of properties on our initial “hotels…

Slip-On Mocs “They pack flat, feel like slippers, and have just enough tread for walking down rain-slicked cobblestone streets.” (Tod’s, $645) Pilar Guzmán, Editor in Chief Low-Tech Noise-Canceling Ear Plugs “I buy them in bulk and keep a fistful on hand whenever I’m traveling. They instantly put any crying baby on mute.” (Mack’s, $10 for 50 pairs) Andrea Whittle, Associate Editor Non-Fussy Stylish Sunglasses “These have flexible hinges so they feel less breakable.” (Izipizi, $45) Lauren DeCarlo, Deputy Editor Glowy Face Oil “Keeps my skin from drying out, and the jasmine scent overrides any gross airplane smells.” (Aesop, $57) Alex Postman, Features Director Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard “I use this for typing out emails on my phone. It fits perfectly on a tray table.” (Microsoft, $100) Paul Brady, Articles Editor “This deceptively roomy tote holds so…

On a recent trip through Southeast Asia, I realized I was finally old enough to experience what so many seasoned travelers of previous generations have described: revisiting places they’d seen in their youth decades later, only to find them completely transformed by tourism. I often wonder what it must be like to have Rajasthan of the ’60s, say, seared in one’s mind, long before the Golden Triangle—that well-worn path from Delhi to Agra and Jaipur—became an inalienable right for most readers of this publication. I’d dreamed of going back to Vietnam ever since I spent three months traveling there some 22 years ago, shortly after the country reopened its doors to Americans. Hội An, an ancient UNESCO-protected trading post in the central Quảng Nam Province along the South China Sea, was…

Where TO Find THEM UNITED STATES 1. 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, N.Y. 2. Ace Hotel Chicago, Ill. 3. The Adelphi Hotel, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. 4. Anvil Hotel, Jackson, Wyo. 5. Austin Motel, Tex. 6. The DeBruce, Livingston Manor, N.Y. 7. Detroit Foundation Hotel, Mich. 8. Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club, Surfside, Fla. 9. Freehand Los Angeles, Calif. 10. Holiday House Palm Springs, Calif. 11. Hotel Californian, Santa Barbara, Calif. 12. Kimpton Rowan Palm Springs Hotel, Calif. 13. Las Alcobas Napa Valley (Luxury Collection), Calif. 14. The Line DC, Washington, D.C. 15. Made Hotel, New York, N.Y. 16. Minam River Lodge, Lostine, Ore. 17. Pendry San Diego, Calif. 18. Proper Hotel San Francisco, Calif. 19. Public, New York, N.Y. 20. The Rossi, Palm Springs, Calif. 21. Surfrider Malibu, Calif. 22. Troutbeck, Amenia, N.Y. 23. Ventana Big Sur, An Alila Resort, Calif. 24. Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Calif. 25. The Whitby Hotel, New…

The term hot is not something we throw around lightly at Condé Nast Traveler. Every year, we vet hundreds of new hotels that swing open their doors promising all sorts of industry catnip: raw-silk Italian sheets, customized Ayurvedic dining, views of some blindingly cerulean bay that no human has ever woken up to before. Most of these openings are good. Many of them, great. But only a fraction are what we’d deem hot. To determine this, we’ve cultivated an army of the most discerning hotel sleuths—Traveler staff as well as a network of trusted contributors across six continents that we call on year-round—to make sure that nary a perfectly mixed lobby bar old-fashioned nor unfluffed swan-down pillow goes undocumented. We arm our scouts with a survey that’s been developed and…

If 2017 taught us anything, it’s that size really doesn’t matter when it comes to hotels. A number of last year’s most beautifully done properties clocked in at under 10 rooms, joining a growing genre that blends the service and infrastructure of a big hotel with the intimacy of a homestay. 7th Room, Treehotel, Harads, Sweden Norwegian powerhouse design firm Snøhetta created this futuristic tree house—with huge skylights for viewing the Northern Lights—33 feet up a Lapland pine. Casa Flora, Venice Twenty Italian artisans turned a three-bedroom apartment into a sun-flooded modern retreat in San Marco. Ottantotto Firenze, Florence Architect Fabrizia Scassellati used terracotta tiles and floral wallpapers in seven cozy rooms along the Arno. Santa Clara 1728, Lisbon Design geeks will fall hard for the open-plan bathrooms, limestone staircase, and gray-blue walls in this six-suite 18th-century villa…